Breakdown of Mientras más visito el retiro, más quiero aislarme.
visitar
to visit
querer
to want
más
more
mientras
while / the more/less (in proportional comparisons) / as long as
aislarse
to isolate oneself
el retiro
the retreat
Questions & Answers about Mientras más visito el retiro, más quiero aislarme.
Why does the sentence use mientras más instead of cuanto más for "the more... the more..."?
In Latin America, mientras más... más... is the most common way to say "the more [X]... the more [Y]". You will also see cuanto más... más... in textbooks and it is understood everywhere (and preferred in Spain), but mientras más sounds very natural in everyday Latin American Spanish.
This lesson is about using el + infinitive. Is el retiro an example of that?
Could I use an articulated infinitive like el aislarme with the verb quiero?
Not in this exact structure. We generally use el + infinitive when the action is the subject of the sentence (e.g., El aislarme me ayuda a pensar = Isolating myself helps me think). In this sentence, aislarme is the object of quiero (what you want to do), so we just use the bare infinitive.
Could I say más me quiero aislar instead of más quiero aislarme?
Yes! When you have a conjugated verb followed by an infinitive, you can place the pronoun before the conjugated verb (me quiero aislar) or attach it to the end of the infinitive (quiero aislarme). Both are perfectly correct and widely used.
Why is visito in the present indicative and not the subjunctive?
Because this sentence describes a habitual, established fact: every time you visit, you want to isolate yourself. You only use the subjunctive in "the more X, the more Y" structures if you are talking about an unknown or future situation (for example, Mientras más visite este lugar en el futuro... = The more I visit this place in the future...).
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